Tuesday, August 15, 2017

I wondered about this when I saw that she looks very much like at least one of my paternal relatives whom's fully Askenazi. When I checked what "Zelnick" means, meanwhile (since I wondered about this, too), I went, "I was right [about Ivana Trump]!" Per Ancestry, "Zelníčk" is Ashkenazi Jewish (Some say that her father's variant was "Zelníček", meanwhile.):

"Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): occupational name from Yiddish tselnik ‘haberdashery’ or from Polish celnik ‘tax collector’. Americanized spelling of Slovenian Zelnik, a nickname or topographic name from zelje ‘cabbage’."

By the way, other European-language surnames that belong exclusively or almost exclusively to Jews. Such names are Munka (as in my own family, as it is exclusively Jewish in Eastern Europe) and Chesnick (a Croatian-English rendering of"Česnik" (e.g., Sister Cathy's father was a Slovenian-American Jew with Ashkenazi Jewish ties, as Southeastern European Jews are usually Sephardic.).In Ivana Trump's case, then, she has the right to be considered a Patrilineal Czech Jew. In addition, this helps to shed light on Anti-Semitic Tr**p's brutal treatment against her—now wonder that Ivana disclosed that her husband is a Neo ******, since she as a Jew (if she ever suspected or knew that she is Jewish) to partly explain why she was afraid of her Neo-Nazi ex husband). This also helps explain that D****d Tr**p's children by Ivana Trump ought to be more ashamed of their Anti Semitism, as should be Jared Kushner.As for Franc, incidentally (since her mother's maiden name was "Francová") :

"French: from a Germanic personal name derived from the ethnic name for a Frank. French: nickname or status name from franc ‘free’ (usually denoting a freed slave). Slovenian and Croatian (northwestern Croatia): from the personal name Franc, Slavic form of German Franz, all from Latin Franciscus (see Francis). Polish, Czech, and Slovak: from the German personal name Franz."

Sunday, April 10, 2016

We're a clan; that's for sure. The first baptism records show up for us in the late 1600s (1688, 1691, and 1698 per FamilySearch). Our surname is, according to Ancestry, "Czech or Slovak (Krempaský): descriptive nickname from krepy ‘squat’, ‘square-built’." We're not nobility or anything, though; and records are fairly scant for us (for the four main surname variants, 7,498 on Ancestry and 7,189; so, the surname in this case has to be simply lingual and not connected to ethnicity, etc..I grant that, e.g., the Roman Catholic Church stopped releasing records to the LDS in 2009 or thereabouts over attempts to baptize decedents; what's online is updated over time, etc.. Still, "Krempasky" and variants are not connected to nobility, Czech or Slovakian ethnicity, etc.. The big clues are these:

Again, scant records despite updates, etc.. How long has Ancestry/FamilySearch/the LDS been doing what they do, by the way?

You state, "Nothing was really handed down to us ". That's going to be a really-big clue.

Somehow, the Krempaskys et. al. all ended up in pretty much the same areas, whether or not the stick-together schtick was intentional.

My own branch of the Krempaszkys—through Rosalia Czarnogurskÿová Krempaszkÿová—became Czarnogurskÿs, with one variant of their surname being Czarnogorsky. Doing the research, etc., you find quite quickly that they were originally Schwarzbergs, Schwartzenbergs, etc. whom became Anusim (Crypto Jews) and Slavicized their name at some point (See FamilySearch for quite a few of the variants, etc. ). Perhaps they even carried it over as a Sephardic surname which later became an Ashkenazi surname—I have read about this, and this happened on my Andrulewicz side unless we dropped our original name and eventually took up a new one when we came to Poland and Lithuania (The Andrulevič[i]uses are kohanim, by the way.).Mária Krempaszkÿová married a Jákob Trudnyakov (Trudnyak when we inherited it. Sadly, an Odesa, Ukraine branch of the Trudnyakovs was affected directly by the Holocaust.); Mihály Trudnyak married Mária Nagyová (a granddaughter of Rosalia Dudayová Nagyová , whose father's family used "Duday" as a kinnui for "Kohen" and mother's family were of the Sephardi Légrádis. Mária's maternal grandmother was Elizabetha Levaiová Nagyová.).Mária Krempaszkÿová Trudnyaková's grandson through Mihály was also Mihály. In Sephardic custom, this naming custom is used; and Mária, by the way, as a variant of "Miryam" is fine among Ashkenazim, as a late cousin's grandnephew told me. The younger Mihály Trudnyak, meanwhile, did not name his first daughter Mary (Neither was his first sister named "Mária": she was named "Aurelia Zsuzsana".).The younger Mihály Trudnyak also married a child of Anusim, a daughter of Sámuel and Rosalia Korschová Munka. Her name was Anna Amalia Munková, and she—unlike her sister Anna Amalia, for whom she either was named or took her own name—was left unbaptized (Samuel and Rosalia baptized no girls after their daughters Paulina, whom died in 1887, and the first Anna Amalia, whom died just shy of her first birthday, died. The final child whom was baptized, Augustinius Samuel Munka, was baptized in September 1887, months after Paulina died.).Mihály and Anna became Michael and Anna Monka Trudniak (also "Trudnak"). Mary Trudnak married the oldest child of Alexandria Andrulewicz Czerniecki, Anthony John Czarnecki (Czerniecki by birth). Needless to say, as I found out, Alexandria (from a Litvish family), was unamused: as I figured out from what I heard, etc., she deplored that her son would marry for love (Granduncle Tony said that, that was the reason.) and not through shidduch (Granduncle Tony talked about how parents chose in the old country. I figured out that, that meant going through shidduch [matchmaking].).Alexandria also deplored that Mary Trudnak was a Believing Jew, and a Believing Jew whom was a daughter of Anusim! Great-Grandma really was a Believing Jew, by the way: while I didn't know that we're Jews until much later (and that's a long story!), I do remember that she was a believer, and the example of her being a believer that sticks out to me is from when my dad's family was up in Luzerne County for his mother's annual family reunions and would go visit Great-Grandma each year.Every time that we visited, she treated me (one of her son Jack's granddaughters) and Jamie (her son Jim's son) as equally as the other grandkids and great-grandkids there; and since Jamie and I each have Cerebral Palsy (and Jamie's is much more severe and was not present from birth), that really sticks out to me. She was also a quiet and frail elderly woman (Much of the frailty had to do with years of abuse that worn her down later, as I figured out.).I hope that this helps, even if it just gives you a lens on it from my side of the family/clan/mishpacha [family]/beit-mishpacha m'Yisra'el [house of a family among Israel].PS Great-Granddad's families were also Anusim (on our branches, anyway), as our Grandma's families (again, on our branches, anyway). I forgot to mention, and I should mention, that "Krempasky" could have even been borrowed from neighbors or other people—Grandma's Rusnak family, for example, somehow borrowed "Kvetkovits" when Gyorgy Rusznak became an Anusi.

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

"Shtick" is a censor for a profane English word in this case, by the way. Anyway...

I did read that two of his sons' middle names are "Anthony" and "Andrew". I'm not sure where they come from, although my father's grandfather was "Anthony John" Czerniecki, a grandson of "Antoni" and "Katarzyna" nee Daniłowiczówna Czerniecki. His mother was an Andrulewiczówna (originally Andrulevič[i]us, variants of which include "Andrews") and she had relatives named "Anthony" as well. Maybe that has something to do with it(?), given that the Danilovich-Andrulevich branches at least on my side, etc. stayed connected. Also, there was an Anton Danilovich in Kalvarija.As I told Tammy, this is the kind of history that one just cannot make up. We're a Suwałki Gubernia branch (and Łomza Gubernia was within its vicinity), although we all came from Dunilavičy (That's where the last name comes from.). "Antoni" and "Katarzyna" ended up in Lipsk, which was actually once part of Minsk Gubernia. There were also Czerneckis/Chernetskys/etc. in Chavusy. I just don't know the exact connection. Besides, we're of the Crypto-Jewish branches. I should add, too, that the naming patterns are eeire. e.g., Kirk Douglas, Michael Kirk Douglas, Dylan Michael Douglas; John Gregory Czarnecki (d. 2013), Gregory Czarnecki (took "Matthew" as a middle name), and I was going to be "John Gregory"(!) and my sister "Matthew Xavier"(! Mom's father was Francis Xavier.), and my cousin is Gregory John, whose dad is Gary John (Again, this is the kind of history that one just cannot make up. Also, once of the Andrulewitz branches had Kasis (probably from Casis/Qissis; not "spit" or "Kazys", although one Kasis did change his name to "Kazys"). By the way, we do have Sephardic heritage somehow (Maybe that explains the naming patterns.).PS The Andrulevicuses were originally from Stakliškės, and all of Great-Granddad's branches (Andrulewicz, &c.; Danilowicz, etc.; Czerniecki, &c.; and Margiewicz [originally Morgovich], etc.) did stay connected in Northeastern Pennsylvania. We stayed Crypto Jews after we became so during the pogroms and became estranged from much of the family.

As I've said before, I can't make this up...

My since-deceased paternal grandfather with his in-law daughter at her wedding in 2004. He was a great-grandson of "Katarzyna" (née Daniłowiczów) Czerniecka, whose father was Avraham "Wojciech" Daniłowicz (Incidentally, finding his Hebrew/Yiddish name took a while, though the JewishGen Given Names Index helped. Also, "Avraham" is pretty easy to easy to figure once you figure why Pop-Pop's uncles John Felix and Joseph were called "Jankie [Felix]" and "Susi [Joseph]", and how you even spell those diminutives in the first place.)

Add caption

Pop-Pop's obituary picture.

My father on July 24, 2013 (The Rusnaks are descendants of Julia [née Foczková] and Andrew Rusnak. Their granddaughter Joan is my paternal grandmother.).

And his namesake, my cousin Greg (Well, my grandfather's, too; since my grandfather's name was Gregory.).

By the way, "greg czarnecki elk ridge" is one of the results that came up. Is there something that I need to know (e.g., a move? A job? Just like the Czarneckis, or at least the Daniloviches, to hide things.).PS That photo in the to-be obituary....scariest "shtick" I've seen. That could be (or could've been) an age-progression photo of my dad. I've explained, I think (all while I've ground my teeth, having unfortunately inherited a bad habit from my father).

"ורב" is explained by the fact that "rov" is "Rav" or "Rabbi" or "great" in Ashkenazi Hebrew and standard Yiddish. So, John Paul's maternal family may well have come from a rabbi who was a kohen, a great man, or both.

Monday, May 19, 2014

"True, European Jewish immigrants did have to render their names into Latin or Cyrillic letters to create passports, and yes, passports were sometimes forged—but those forgeries or name changes would have been generated by the immigrants themselves. It is also true that many immigrants chose new names for themselves in America, whether for expediency or to avoid discrimination. But that was after they left Ellis Island. I am not revealing state secrets here, or arcane information. Any school child who has been on a field trip to Ellis Island knows all this. But why use facts when rumors will do?"Yep. My paternal granddad's paternal family did this. "Czerniezka"? Who checked; and, by the way, who questioned when Alexandria "Czerniezka" listed "Katarzyna [?] Czerniezka", to whom she was not talking, as her nearest relative from whence she came (and never mind that they weren't talking after the former had become a Anusit)? (By the way, they were both Danilowiczes somehow. "Katarzyna" certainly was, as she was born a Danilowiczówna.) And on other records..."Czarnecki", "Chernetski", "Czarniecki", "Czerniecki" (the original one, apparently), "Charnetski". Something should've caught on; and, blessedly, it somehow never did (and, by the way, Great-Granddad "spoke perfect English"; and English was neither his nor his extremely-literate parents' native language, and his dad particularly knew how to get around the system. His mom was a little more honest. Still, Great-Granddad was one of those who was marked by "inaccuracies [which] were grounds for deporting improperly documented or unqualified people back to Europe". How Ellis Island, the Luzerne County Courts, etc. never caught on, I can only guess.

As for "facts when rumors will do" on the flip side: one of our surnames is "Foc(z)ko" or "seal". Whether it's a deliberate pun on "Siegel" (and I'll bet that it is), I can only guess. But my cousin (since we were Anusim who fled Poland after the Non-Anusi branch bid us farewell) gets so mad when I point out that "Focko" and "Foczko" are rare, in mainly Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary (and became "Fosko" in many cases in the U.S.); is "Focko" and "Foczko" ("Fo-ts-ko") in Polish, Slovakian (with the non-accented "c"), and Hungarian; and both the Polish and Hungarian use the word "foka" (with the only difference being the Hungarian having the "ó"), and Slovakian doesn't have that word. Also, we immigrated to Upper Hungary, the more-tolerant of the two Hungarys (not Lower Hungary), where we could pass and have Slovakized our name if we so chose (We didn't.).

He loves to continue to buy the family tripe, which includes all this randomness/coincidences/conveniently leaving out geographical proximity and other relevant factors (e.g., that István Foczko's wife, JánaHanzóková Foczková, was never noted to be of "hanzók"/Hanseatic descent [and if she was, that would've come out; as one of our ways of passing was to try to link ourselves to gentile notables if we could]; that her mother was a Lázárová, and that her only daughter, Julianna Foczková, was deliberately proposed to by a Levite whose parental grandparents had to be "felmentették" ["acquitted"] to marry). In doing so, he also (whether or not he realizes that he) dumbs us down quite a bit (e.g., as if Anusim weren't smart enough to seek each other out?). By the way, he didn't mind using my granddad's old Stefan Czarniecki canard on me. He lost, though: ours was "Czerniecki" (apparently. It could've been "Zernetzky", too. Who knows? It was an Anusi marriage done at Maćkowa Ruda, far from Krasne and Lipsk, and far from the eyes and ears of rabbis who'd've never allowed a Catholic marriage even for "Antoni" and "Katarzyna" to gain freedom from serfdom). We were never near the Anti-Semite Stefan Czarniecki (We are related to Kirk Douglas, though. I don't know the connection; yet, there you go: "Danilovich" wasn't just a patronymic after all, and the Daniloviches are responsible for producing an Exodus denier who raped Natalie Wood. We're also responsible for producing Jack Czarnecki, who hurt a lot of people—including by hiding his Jewishness and trying to connect us to Stefan Czarniecki. (Concerning that [i.e., Kirk Douglas, my granddad's self hating, and whatever else that is bad that I didn't know until I began doing the family research] , I was like Darby Conley after he got his cat—"sorry and ignorant.")

Friday, April 11, 2014

You think? That, chaver (o mishpacha) sheli, takes a no brainer (If this is Kevin, I know that you know that. Don't try to fool me.). By the way (and I have nothing to hide), this is going to (G-d willing) be on Wikipedia (and maybe Kevin will learn something here that I just figured out a while back. By the way, a handy tool is EasyBib.):

The religions of the Foczko Family range from Normative Judaism to Christianity, to "other religions".[19] Some of the descendants of the Anusi branches are even reluctant to identify as Ethnic Jews because of their religious affiliations and family history[20], notwihstanding the following:

"[T]he term anusim is applied not only to the forced converts themselves, but also to their descendants who clandestinely cherished their Jewish faith, attempting to observe at least vestiges of the *halakhah, and loyalty to their Jewish identity. Both the elements of compulsion and free will enter the psychological motivation of the forced convert. The concept denoted by the term anusim, therefore, is fluid, bordering on that applying to apostates and even to *Marranos; it has been the subject of much discussion."[21]

Jump up^"Re: Surname "Faczko"" Message to [a descendant of Julia Fosko Rusnak (née Juliana Foczková)]. Mar.-Apr. 2016. E-mail. The email partially reads, "As I said earlier seems to me that the difference of one letter is quite normal. So "Faczko" would be a variant of "Foczko". But I'm not the specialist. When the surname is more difficult and not popular become the bigger opportunity of changing. All my grandfather's brother and sisters had different surname even thought all of them had the same parents."

Jump up^Message to [a descendant of Julia Fosko Rusnak (née Juliana Foczková)]. Jan.-Feb. 2010. E-mail. The email partially reads, "As to our ‘Jewish roots’, I have talked to a number of people and there is only one situation of someone on the [Fosko-]Rusnak side of the family being Jewish and that is questionable. Please remember that Judaism is a religion and not a nationality and that in your extended family, you probably have scores of Christian denominations and sub-denominations represented as well as other religions."